Apparatus for working sheet material



March 14, 1939. y B FR NGHM 2,150,890

APPARATUS FOR WORKING SHEET MATERIAL Filed May 6, 1935 3 Sheets-Sheet l lax? H ,i g h IW 52 18 5a a4 I 55 y m I v I as 77 f 05 O 51 82 H Y 36 I 76 a9 r 4 a4 1 66 a7 a 10s 92 i 4 ig gag 251 5105 I 24 J] I 106 25 I Q I Q 11 1 11z I 116 114 A? I 115 INVENTOR Bymafiuflra ATTORNEYS,

March 14, 1939. FRANGHlA 2,150,890

APPARATUS FOR WORKING SHEET MATERIAL Filed May 6, 1935 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 March'14, 1939. F ANGHM 2,150,890

APPARATUS FOR WORKING SHEET MATERIAL Filed May 6; 1935 s Shets-Sheet s I INVENTOR :L 7?

ATTO NEYG Patented Mar. 14, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE APPARATUS FOR WORKING SHEET MATERIAL Byron Franghia, Paris,

France, as'signor to British Hygienic Containers Limited, London, England 3 Claims.

This invention relates to an improved apparatus for manufacturing articles out of thin sheet material.

In the manufacture of articles of sheet material of various forms, several types of operation must be successively employed before the completion of the work, such as cutting, stamping, crinkling, etc. in a desired order. Such a process of manufacture usually entails the use of a plurality of complex machines to each of which the work is transferred for a particular operation. Whatever may be the number or nature of the necessary operations and the order in which they should be carried out to obtain a favorable result, it is advantageous to complete the manufacture of the articles in a minimum time by means of a higher rate of speed in operation of the machine.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a machine capable of completing all of the necessary work to the elimination of the necessity for supplementary hand work.

It is also an object to provide such a machine in the form of a self-contained unit for successively carrying out the various operations in the desired order.

It is a further object to provide such a machine that necessitates but a single plane of work so that upon the movement of one member in that plane for performing one operation, the remaining members operate in a predetermined order for completing the other operations, such as cutting, corrugating and beading at different levels and in the desired order.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, 35 the invention resides in the combination of parts and in the details of construction hereinafter set forth in the following specification and appended claims, certain embodiments being illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a view in elevation, partly in section of the machine;

Figure 2 is a view in elevation of the machine, taken at right angles to Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a view in vertical section of a typical form of corrugating device;

Figure 4 is a plan view of the bead forming device with the stamping punch shown in section;

Figure 5 is a view in section taken on line 5-5 of Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a plan view of a partially formed p;

Figure 7 is a plan view of a cup with the corrugations flattened to form pleats; and,

Figure 8 is a side View of the completed cup.

Referring more particularly to .the drawings,

the invention has to do with a machine that necessitates but a single plane of work, as for example, the vertical plane. Thus during the descent of the stamping punch I, all of the operations necessary for the completion of the manu- 55 factured article may be carried out successively and continuously in the desired order in a vertical plane. The intervening elements, such as the cutting knife 2, the pawls 3 and 4 for crinkling the material, the members for the beading operation and a matrix 5 are all arranged at different vertical levels in a desired order and concentrically with respect to the longitudinal axis of the stamping punch. Thus on a single descent of the stamping punch a blank of sheet metal, such as iron, is cut, crinkled, stamped, beaded and completely finished and discharged without resorting to other machines and without other operations than those included in the difierent stages of operation of the one unitary machine.

The stamping punch may be hollow as shown in Figure 1. It is connected by a pin 6 to a connecting rod 1 engaging a crank pin 3 with an intervening bearing 9. The crank is an integral part of the shaft [0 suported in bearings II and I2 by the upright posts 13 and M. The shaft may be provided with a belt pulley l5 keyed thereto at it and held in position longitudinally by a nut IT. The belt pulley may be rotated by a belt from a suitable source of power. The rotation of shaft It thus reciprocates the stamping punch, and the frequency of these reciprocations and the length thereof is dependent upon the length of the throw E8 between the shaft l9 and the crank pin 8. The platform i9, supported by the uprights is cut out at 20 to permit the necessary movement of the connecting rod 1 and the crank pin 8 and throw 18.

Fixed to a second and lower platform Zl is a sleeve 22 for aligning and centering the stamping A0 punch as it reciprocates therethrough. As a further centering means the platform 23, also supported by the uprights, is provided with a fixed sleeve 25 for receiving the stamping punch. The lower extremity, shown at 25 in the form of a 4'5 truncated cone, may be of any appropriate form for the desired part.

The movement of the stamping punch, the knife 2, the stopping of the band of sheet iron for cutting, the operation of suitable members for the beading of the sheet iron pieces, and the continuous unrolling of the band of sheet iron and the discharge of the finished pieces may be correlated by means of appropriate cams, levers and connecting rods.

For instance the shaft It] has 355 keyed thereto at 29 a gear 30 which, in turn, drives a cam wheel 3| provided with a cam 32. This cam wheel and cam bear against a roller 33 on a pin 34 in a block 35 integral with a rod 36. Rod 36 is divided and provided with an adjustment nut 31 to vary its effective length. Gear 30 drives a train of adjacent gears for correspondingly driving a series of cam wheels 38, 39, 40 and M and their respective cams 42, 43, 44 and'45 in the respective directions shown by the arrows in Figure 2. These cams likewise bear respectively on rollers 46, 41, 48 and 49 to operate rods 50, 5I, 52 and 53, these rods being also provided with adjustment nuts 54, 55, 56 and 51.

The band ofsheet iron 26 in which are out out the blanks to be worked is rolled upon a drum 2! which turns with a continuous movement. The

, storage drum from which the sheet iron is drawn rotates about an axis 28. The sheet iron is drawn by its free extremity but must be stopped during the time necessary for the cutting.

This may bedone by means of a gripping lever 58 operated by the lever 36 through the medium of an intermediate short lever 59 pivotally connected to lever 36 at 60 and supported pivotally at 6I and secured to the gripping lever 58. The drive during this stopping interval is thrown out of gear by an appropriate coupling gear while the drum 2'! pays out the necessary length of sheet iron for the next operation.

The thin band ;of sheet iron moves over the platform 62, also supported by the uprights. The diameter of the drum 26 is such that the length of sheet iron, paid out during the descent of the stamping ,punch and its ascent, corresponds to the length of the blank cut. The band is drawn at its other extremity so as to pass between two small friction drums 63 and 64. The upper drum 63 is driven by a suitable; pulley 65, which may be suitably belt'driven, and the lower drum 64 is an idler drum free to rotate upon its axis. As in the moment of cutting, the band must remain stationary, there are two gripping levers 58 and 6'! controlled by the shaft 6| connected to the fork 69 of the rod 36 so as to clamp the sheet iron band'against movement on the platform 62. At the moment the gripping levers 58 and 61 engage the sheet band against movement and as a result thereof the driveof the band 63 is released so as to render the drawing action thereof automatically ineffective until the bars 66 and 61 are again raised. This release may be effected by any suitable clutch arrangement diagrammatically represented by the box in dotted lines at I0 through which the shafts II and I2 extend, the former shaft being directly driven by thedrum 65. A friction drum I0 rotatable about a shaft I2 bears against the band 26 to hold the latter against the drum.2I. The shaft 12 may be carried by the block 15 supported by the bolt I4 which is adjustable in the bracket 13. r

The cutter head I6 carrying the cutting blade 2 is centered so as to be slidable on the sleeve 22. It is controlled by the operation of the lever 'II 'by means ofits pivotal connection 11 to the cutter head. This lever is pivoted at 8| to a 7 link 19 which is pivoted at 80 to a'stationary bracket 18. The other end of the lever 11 is pivotally connected at 62 to aforked extension 83 of the rod 50, the operation of which con trols the reciprocatory movement of the cutterhead. V 7

At the beginning of the movement the sheet band 26 to'be cut is upon the platform 62; The cutterhead isthen lowered until the blade 2 urged downwardly by a compression spring 81' between adjacent flanges of the sleeves 85 and 86. The pawls 4 are pivotally secured at 4' to the casing and the pawls 3 are pivotally connected at 3 to the sleeve 85. The pivot points 3' and 4 are both excentric, with respect to their respective pawls 3 and 4. A tension spring 89 anchored at 88 is connected to pawl 4 to normally urge the lower portion of pawl 4 inwardly. The downward movement of the cutterhead and the sleeves 85 and 86 overcome the action of springs 81 and 89 to move the pawls about their pivots. The sheet iron blank is caught between these two series of pawls arranged in different vertical planes to bring about the fiuting or corrugating operation and to produce the partially formed cup I20 shown in Fig. 6. gated side walls 'I2I in which the corrugations taper in depth from the upper edge of the cup I20 to adjacent its base. The ring 86 resiliently presses downwardly on the upper pawls 3'to avoid When the punch I is raised, the pawls 3 and 4 return to a horizontal plane in readiness for the next operation. A corrugating device of this type is disclosed in my Patent No. 2,040,929, dated May 19, 1936. V

The sheet iron which has been stamped and corrugated is carried downwardly by the punch for the beading of the edge of the sheet iron blank in a device of the type disclosed in my co-pending application, Serial No. 20,046, filed May 6, 1935. This beading device is best shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The punch forces the corrugated blank into the matrix 5 and in its lowermost position, as shown in Figure l, lowers the movable matrix 5 against the action of a compression spring 90 in the cup 9 I. pleated walls.

The cup has corru- 30 possible delay and to permit regular corrugating.

gated walls I2I of the cup I20 are flattened to form a plurality of adjacent folds or pleats I22. Displacement of the matrix 5 is regulated in such a manner that the edge 92 of the cone 25 is below the groove 93 formed jointly in the upper ex tremity of the collar 24 and the sectors I94, in which groove the beading takes place. The bar 5 2 raises the lever 94 to push the ejecting rod 95 upwardly through the matrix. Secured to the rod 95 is a plate 96 which pushes the stamped blank upwardly in'a position to be pushed aside by a rod 91 actuated by the operating rod 53 so as to make room for the next complete operation on the sheet band 26.

Having more particular reference to the beading operation, the matrix or the mould is displaced in the fixed ring 24 by downward movement of punch I. During upward movement of punch I, the operating rod 5| is pushed downwardly by cam 43. This rod is pivoted at 98 to a lever 99 which in turn is pivoted to the platform 23 by means of a link I00. Thus a'downward movement of rod 5| rotates the lever 99 counterclockwise. This causes an upward movement of the ring I01 and the levers I02 carried thereby. These levers pass through enlarged slots I04 of a I94 rests on and is connected to plate I03 and is divided into sectors capable of radial movement with respect to plate 503. The levers also pass through plate I 94 in relatively small slots. These levers are pivoted at Hi6 to the ring I07 and carry rollers I which are shown in Figure 1 engaging arcuate recesses in the adjacent outer face of the collar 24. An upward movement of the rin I 07 moves the rollers I05 out of their recesses and the levers I82 are thus moved pivotally outwardly to spread the sectors I94 outwardly to the positions shown in dotted lines in Fig. 4. This outward movement is limited by the limited movement of the levers in the slots I04 in the stationary ring 33. When the punch I reaches its lowest position, the rod 5i moves upwardly as roller 4? rides off cam lobe 43, moving sleeve 40? downwardly. Rollers I05 on lever I02 enter the recesses in sleeve 2d moving sectors I94 into substantial engagement with punch I and aligning the grooves 93 for a heading operation. Upward movement of punch I allows matrix 5 to force the hollow blank or cup upwardly, thereby forcing the free edge of the cup into the groove 93 and curling or beading its edge.

When the bead is formed on the cup and during upward movement of punch I, the rod 5| is again forced downwardly, moving sleeve I01 upwardly, spreading the sectors I94 and releasing the cup so that it may be lifted from the matrix by ejector rod 95 and disk 96. Rod 91 is then actuated to sweep the cup from the machine.

The completed cup I20 is disclosed in Fig. 8. The cup I 20 has a rolled or beaded edge I23, the upper edges of pleated walls being rolled to form the bead.

To provide a pressure cushion for the lever 94 the latter may be provided with a T-sleeve IIO slidable in a pressure sleeve I II around which is arranged a compression spring H2. A sliding rod H3 is pivotally mounted at H4 to the base II5 to ride freely within the sleeve II 0.

I claim:

1. Machine for forming dished or cup-like pleated containers from thin sheet material, com prising a vertical frame, a vertical punch within the frame, a guide for said punch between the top and bottom of said frame, means at the top of said frame for reciprocating the punch, a matrix at the lower part of the frame into which the lower end of the punch is forced to effect a final cupping or shaping action on the sheet material, said matrix yieldingly opposing the downward pressure of the punch, a cutting platform between said guide and said matrix, a cutter head disposed about the punch and above said platform, means guiding the sheet material in successive stages on to said platform, means to depress the cutter head against the platform to sever the sheet material in advance of the engagement of the sheet material by the punch,

and preliminary cupping or shaping means to form the severed pieces of material into pleated cup-like form before being fed into the matrix, said preliminary cupping or shaping means comprising a plurality of pawl like fingers disposed symmetrically about and substantially radiating from the axis of the path of travel of the punch, said fingers being disposed close against the base of the sheet material during the cutting stages and yieldingly opposing descent of the punch so as to pleat the severed pieces of material in cuplike form upon the lower end of the punch.

2. Machine for forming dished or cup-like pleated containers from thin sheet material, comprising a frame, a reciprocating punch in the frame, means to feed the sheet material across the axis of travel of the punch, means to sever a disc-like section from the sheet material in advance of the engagement of the punch with the sheet material, means to pleat or fold the severed portion of sheet material in dished or cup-like form snugly about the punch simultaneously with the descent of the punch through and beyond the plane of severance of the sheet material, and a matrix beyond said plane located to receive the punch and the dished or cupped piece of material thereon, said pleating or folding means comprising a plurality of elements bearing against the severed piece of material and yieldingly opposing the movement of the punch towards said matrix.

3. Machine for forming dished or cup-like pleated containers from thin sheet material, comprising a frame, a reciprocating punch in the frame, means to feed the sheet material across the axis of travel of the punch, means to sever a disc-like section from the sheet material in advance of the engagement of the punch with the sheet material, means to pleat or fold the severed portion of sheet material in dished or cuplike form snugly about the punch simultaneously with the descent of the punch through and beyond the plane of severance of the sheet material, a matrix beyond said plane located to receive the punch and the dished or cupped piece of material thereon, said pleating or folding means comprising a plurality of elements bearing against the severed piece of material and yieldingly opposing the movement of the punch towards said matrix, a driven shaft for reciprocating the punch, a beading device with the matrix comprising a unitary plate and a plurality of radially expansible segments in a plane at right angles to the axis of the punch, an extruding device with the matrix to extrude the shaped articles, a plurality of cams adapted to be driven in unison with said shaft and a corresponding number of operating rods operatively connecting said cams to the means for severing the sheet material and to said extruding device.

BYRON FRANGHIA. 

